The Secretary of State for the Home Department (Suella Braverman)
With permission, Madam Deputy Speaker, I would like to make a
statement about the Government’s response to the final report of
the independent inquiry into child sexual abuse. The inquiry lasted
seven years and its findings are harrowing, involving widespread
child sexual abuse going back decades and shameful institutional
failures in child protection. Each case represents an intensely
personal story of the...Request free
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The Secretary of State for the Home Department ()
With permission, Madam Deputy Speaker, I would like to make a
statement about the Government’s response to the final report of
the independent inquiry into child sexual abuse. The inquiry
lasted seven years and its findings are harrowing, involving
widespread child sexual abuse going back decades and shameful
institutional failures in child protection. Each case represents
an intensely personal story of the pain and suffering of a child
enduring something that nobody should endure. I am so sorry that
anyone has. The interests of victims and survivors are at the
heart of the inquiry’s report, and of the Government’s response.
I want to thank the more than 6,000 victims and survivors who
bravely came forward to share their testimonies. I was humbled
and moved when meeting several of them recently. Today is about
ensuring their voices are heard and reflected in our work, so
that future generations do not suffer as they did. I promise that
their courage will count.
I pay tribute to the chair of the inquiry, Professor Alexis Jay,
and her team for their fearless commitment to uncovering
horrendous societal, professional and institutional failures, and
for years of meticulous and diligent work. We must use this
moment to bring this crime further out of the shadows, to provide
proper support to all victims and survivors, and to deliver real
and enduring change.
This Government have repeatedly shown our determination to stop
the scourge of child sexual abuse. Just last month the Prime
Minister and I announced new measures to tackle the evil of
grooming gangs, but there is zero room for complacency and the
inquiry’s final report confronts us with a necessary moment for
further reflection. It is more than a collection of
recommendations; it is a call for fundamental cultural change,
societal change, professional change and institutional
change.
I am pleased to say that this Government have risen to the
inquiry’s challenge. We are accepting the need to act on 19 of
the inquiry’s 20 final recommendations. That includes driving
work across Government to improve victims’ experience of the
criminal justice system, the criminal injuries compensation
scheme, workforce regulation, access to records, consistent and
compatible data, and communications on the scale and nature of
child sexual abuse. The Government’s response does not represent
our final word on the inquiry’s findings, but rather the start of
a new chapter.
We will continue to engage with victims and survivors, with child
protection organisations and with Professor Jay to ensure they
retain sight of our work and confidence in our delivery. The full
Government response will be published online at gov.uk. The Welsh
Government have responded separately on matters relating to Wales
alone.
I will now highlight our response to some of the most
consequential recommendations. We need to stop perpetrators in
their tracks, and we need better to protect and support the
children they seek to prey upon. To do this we must address the
systemic under-reporting of child sexual abuse. As I announced in
April, the Government accept the inquiry’s recommendation to
introduce a new mandatory reporting duty across England. Today, I
am launching a call for evidence that will inform how this new
duty can be best designed to prevent the continued abuse of
children and ensure they get help as soon as possible.
The inquiry recommended a redress scheme for victims and
survivors of historical child sexual abuse, which the Government
also accept. Of course, nobody can ever fully compensate victims
and survivors for the abuse they suffered, but what we can do is
properly acknowledge their suffering and deliver justice and an
appropriate form of redress. This is a landmark commitment. It
will be complex and challenging, but it really matters. As the
inquiry recommends, we will carefully consult victims and
survivors; we will draw on lessons from other jurisdictions; and
we will make sure we honour the inquiry’s legacy as we design the
scheme.
We accept that there is more we can do to ensure that those who
have suffered get access to the provision they need to help them
recover and rebuild their lives. We have already introduced the
Victims and Prisoners Bill, which will ensure that the criminal
justice system delivers on victims’ entitlements. It will also
introduce a new statutory duty on local partners to work together
when commissioning support services for victims of sexual
violence, but where we need to go further, we will. We will
elicit views on the future of therapeutic support, including
systemic changes to provision, through the extensive consultation
we are undertaking on redress. It is right that we consider these
things together so we can better deliver the support needed by
child and adult victims and survivors of abuse.
The inquiry rightly demands proper leadership and governance of
child protection. In response to the inquiry’s recommendation for
a new child protection authority, the Department for Education’s
implementation strategy “Stable Homes, Built on Love” has set out
major reform to children’s social care. Although taking a
different form, we are confident that these reforms will fulfil
the proposed functions of such a child protection agency and
ensure a coherent response across all parts of the system to
child sexual abuse. The Government will, however, closely monitor
the delivery of our commitments through our newly established
child protection ministerial group, inviting scrutiny from
victims, survivors and other partners. We will keep this House
and the other place regularly updated on our progress.
The inquiry makes two recommendations relating to the horrifying
and growing threat of online child sexual abuse. The Government’s
Online Safety Bill will be a truly world-leading law that will
make the UK the safest place to be online. The strongest measures
in the Bill are reserved for child sexual abuse, leaving
companies in no doubt about their duties to remove and report
child sexual abuse material found on their platforms, and to use
technologies such as age verification. Child sexual abuse is a
global crime, which is why we continue to lead work with
international partners to bring pressure to bear on the big tech
companies, which must face up to their moral duty to protect
children.
There is no greater evil than hurting a child. This landmark
inquiry found that for far too long stopping child sexual abuse
was seen as no one’s responsibility. We must ensure that child
abuse is brought out of the shadows, we must make it everyone’s
responsibility, and we must give those who have suffered the
confidence that their voices will be heard, their needs will be
met and they will be protected. We owe a great debt of gratitude
to the victims and survivors who came forward, to their families
and to campaigners. Today is their moment, and it must be a
watershed moment. I commend this statement to the House.
Madam Deputy Speaker ( )
I call the shadow Home Secretary.
4.42pm
(Normanton, Pontefract and
Castleford) (Lab)
I thank the Home Secretary for advance sight of her statement,
and join her in paying tribute to the victims and survivors of
this hideous crime. Many of those victims and survivors have been
crucial to establishing the inquiry in the first place and have
been involved, working hard to make sure that voices are heard.
Their strength should be recognised and their calls to action
must be heeded.
There is no more hideous crime than child sexual exploitation and
abuse, a crime that preys on vulnerability and leave scars that
are felt for the rest of a young person’s life. The independent
inquiry set up by the Home Secretary’s predecessor, the right
hon. Member for Maidenhead (Mrs May), identified failings across
a wide range of institutional settings, including local councils,
the Anglican and Catholic Churches, and organised groups and
networks. In each area, action is needed to make sure that abuse
is tackled wherever it is found.
I welcome the Government’s acceptance that there needs to be a
redress scheme for victims and survivors of historical abuse. I
ask the Home Secretary what the timetable and next steps will be
on that, as that trauma can last a lifetime and is truly
devastating for those who experience it.
May I also say to the Home Secretary that the rest of the
statement is inadequate as a Government response to such a
serious and weighty report? I am glad that she has accepted the
need to act on 19 of the 20 recommendations, but that is not the
same as accepting the recommendations or as setting out what
action she is actually going to take. For example, the inquiry
said that victims and survivors should receive
“a guarantee of specialist therapeutic support”,
but all her statement says is:
“We will elicit views on the future of therapeutic support”.
We know that that therapeutic support is inadequate and that
there are lots of views already—the whole point of the inquiry
was to gather those views and that evidence. On many of the
recommendations, there is little detail. All that the Home
Secretary has done is simply point to what the Government are
doing already. I hope that there is more in the full report to
which she refers, but there is far too little in the statement
today to give us any confidence.
Labour called for mandatory reporting of child sexual abuse
nearly a decade ago. The Government finally agreed to do it in
April, but all the Home Secretary has done today is open a call
for evidence. Well, there have already been many calls for
evidence. In fact, the inquiry gathered lots of evidence. At
best, she could have launched her own call for evidence some time
ago. Why is mandatory reporting not in the Victims and Prisoners
Bill? That is our opportunity to make progress rapidly.
The Home Secretary’s response to online sexual abuse is far too
weak. She has referred to the Online Safety Bill—we know that
that is long delayed and watered down—but this is not just about
the legislation; it is also about the action that is taken. Since
then, we have had an inspectorate report on online abuse that
describes the police response to online child sexual abuse and
exploitation as
“too often leaving vulnerable children at risk”,
with examples of police taking up to 18 months to make an arrest
after becoming aware that children were at risk of abuse. There
was nothing on that in her statement. What action will she take
on policing?
New evidence from the Internet Watch Foundation found that the
number of web pages containing category A material has more than
doubled since 2020—just in the past few years alone. Again, the
response is wholly inadequate.
Charging rates have got worse and worse. Every year,
approximately 500,000 children will be sexually abused, only one
in five of whom is likely to report their abuse. Only 11% of the
reported cases result in a charge, down from more than 30% in
2015. It has got so much worse over the past few years. That
means that the overwhelming majority of child sexual abusers face
no consequences—criminals are getting away with these terrible,
terrible crimes. It has got even worse than the last time we
discussed this topic in the House in October.
On child protection and the Disclosure and Barring Service,
again, we have warned about gaps in the disclosure and barring
system, and there are still problems with it. Only last year, we
had unaccompanied asylum-seeking children being placed in hotels
without properly trained DBS staff. What has the Home Secretary
done since then even to reform child protection in her own
Department?
Children and teenagers have paid the price of the country’s
failure to tackle child sexual abuse and exploitation. The Home
Secretary’s predecessor rightly set up this inquiry, but there is
a responsibility on every single one of us, and in particular on
the Home Secretary and the Government, to make sure that action
takes place. This is about the victims and the survivors, but it
is also about future generations of children whose safety and
lives will be at risk if we do not see action.
I thank the right hon. Lady for her questions and her response,
and for the utmost seriousness with which she has approached this
topic.
As I said in my statement, the report represents fundamental
change to the way in which we deal with child abuse. I hope that
the recommendations that we are taking forward today demonstrate
the Government’s commitment to tackling this evil. The right hon.
Lady asks about timetable and pace. On the speed of the report
and our response, I hope she will appreciate that it is important
not only that the independent assessor, Professor Jay, took the
time to get the report right, but that we consider things
thoroughly now so that we make the most of the recommendations
and ensure that we deliver the level of reform that will make a
meaningful difference on the ground to victims and survivors and
that will make a difference in culture to prevent this from
happening again.
This is reform on a level not seen before. It will mark a step
change in our approach to child sexual abuse. We need to, and we
will, get this right. If that takes time, that is time well
spent. I do not want to give victims and survivors the false
impression that implementing these big commitments will happen
overnight. What I can promise them is that this response heralds
a new start; it signifies a change in direction and it represents
an acknowledgement of what they have been through, what they have
testified to and the work of this inquiry.
The Government have accepted the need to act on 19 out of the 20
recommendations. We are accepting the vast majority of them. I
hope that that reflects our genuine and real commitment to
getting this right. I have also committed today to closely
monitor police force data on child sexual abuse, not only to
ensure that the police are appropriately prioritising that
terrible crime, but to identify where they need partners such as
tech companies to improve their response. Let me be clear: we
will do whatever it takes and whatever is necessary to protect
children from abuse—no ifs and no buts.
Let me issue a few thanks. I put on the record my thanks to my
right hon. Friend the Member for Maidenhead (Mrs May) , one of my
predecessors, for launching this inquiry, recognising the problem
and starting this important work. I put on record my thanks to my
right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Education, to my
right hon. and learned Friend the Lord Chancellor and to other
Cabinet Ministers who have come together to support this
Government response. This issue will require a
whole-of-Government, multi-agency response if we are to genuinely
protect the interests of children.
Above all, I thank the victims and their families for sharing
their stories and for helping us to take this big step forward. I
have had the honour of meeting members of the victims and
survivors consultative panel; today I met professionals who are
working on the frontline, members of the police force and members
and employees at the Centre of Expertise on Child Sexual Abuse,
hosted at Barnardo’s and funded by the Home Office. I have
visited The Lighthouse in Camden, which provides therapeutic
support to children who have encountered this kind of horrific
abuse, and I have worked with and met the National Society for
the Prevention of Cruelty to Children. I thank all the
professionals on the frontline.
Child sexual abuse is a complex issue and its enormity cannot be
underestimated. I am enormously grateful to the victims and
survivors for their courage. The abuse should never have
happened, but I hope that with these changes we will make a
difference and prevent future abuse from taking place. We owe
that to past victims and their families.
(Maidenhead) (Con)
I am grateful to my right hon. and learned Friend for her
statement. When I launched the independent inquiry, I said that
people would be shocked at the level of abuse of children that
had taken place in this country, and indeed the final report
showed an appalling and shocking level of abuse—not just
historical abuse, but abuse that carries on today. The
Government’s response is very important. Those who wish to abuse
children will look for opportunities to work with children in
order to undertake that abuse. Will my right hon. and learned
Friend please give a little more detail about the Government’s
response to the recommendations in the report on the Disclosure
and Barring Service, including those on the use of the disclosure
regime for those working with children overseas and on extending
use of the barred list of people who are unsuitable to work with
children?
My right hon. Friend is absolutely right to point out that we
need to enhance the rigour of scrutiny and standards within the
workforce when it comes to professionals who have direct contact
with or responsibilities relating to children. That is why
several of the recommendations relate to registration. We accept
the recommendation on the registration of care staff in
residential care. We also accept the recommendation on the
registration of staff in young offender institutions and secure
training centres, and we are exploring the proposals on how to
operate it. We are looking at the recommendations relating to the
barred list of people who are unsuitable for work with children,
and the recommendation relating to the duties to inform the
Disclosure and Barring Service about individuals who might pose a
risk. We are accepting those recommendations as well and
exploring the ways and the form in which we can deliver them.
(Rotherham) (Lab)
I have a long history with IICSA; I was one of the MPs who first
lobbied the then Home Secretary for it, and I am incredibly
grateful to the right hon. Member for Maidenhead (Mrs May) for
commissioning it, but that was seven years ago. That is seven
years of victims and survivors laying out their stories, and
telling us what we already knew: that this is an epidemic. In
that time, the Government could have been doing very practical
things to prevent it. The Home Secretary says that she accepts
the need to act. That is not the same as acting. She said that
victims would have visibility in the work that will be done, and
that there would be consultation and monitoring. Where is the
funding? Where is the actual getting on with the recommendations?
What is the one recommendation that the Home Secretary does not
accept? She has not told us that.
I have been fully transparent. I have come to the House today to
set out our response, and we are also publishing our detailed
response to the inquiry, which sets out the detail that the hon.
Lady requests. As for what the Government have done, I reject the
accusation that we have not acted. I am very proud of the effort
that this Government have made so far to get to the point at
which we can accept the vast majority of the recommendations. Now
the work starts.
We need to ensure that we get the recommendations right and
deliver them in a meaningful way. I do not apologise for taking
the time to get that right. Accepting the redress scheme is a
landmark commitment that the Government are making today. That
will ensure that victims of this heinous crime secure redress. We
need to decide what form that will take—not every victim or
survivor is the same—and how that redress can be delivered. There
are many forms that redress can take. We need to assess what is
appropriate for the victims, and listen to survivors, so that we
get the scheme right. I am determined to do so.
(Bromsgrove) (Con)
I welcome the Home Secretary’s statement. IICSA’s final report
rightly said that the pace of technological change is of
significant concern. Indeed, since the report was published, some
seven months ago, we have seen a seismic shift in artificial
intelligence. AI is already bringing fantastic benefits for
society, but it also brings threats; I know that the Home
Secretary is fully aware of that. Those threats are especially
acute for children. For instance, huge amounts of AI-generated
child sexual abuse imagery are already being created and shared
by paedophiles. As we have heard, the report was commissioned by
my right hon. Friend the Member for Maidenhead (Mrs May) some
eight years ago. It has taken us that long to reach the point of
action. In the AI age, we can no longer take so long to act. What
processes has the Home Secretary put in place to ensure that her
Department and laws keep up with the pace of change of
technology?
My right hon. Friend is absolutely right to say that the rapid
pace of development in technology is a challenge to grapple with
when it comes to protecting children online. I pay tribute to him
for standing up for child victims when he was Home Secretary, and
taking a stance against this heinous crime. Our Online Safety
Bill is making its way through Parliament. It is future-proofed
to allow the regulator to keep pace with technological
developments. From the Home Office point of view, I am working
with the National Crime
Agency and GCHQ to identify the new challenges posed by AI.
In this field, there are opportunities but also real risks posed
by the proliferation of AI, and we need to ensure that our law
enforcement agencies are equipped to deal with them.
(Vauxhall)
(Lab/Co-op)
The Home Secretary stated that the inquiry rightly demands proper
leadership and governance when it comes to the protection of
children. Another area that demands proper leadership, and where
protection is needed, is child criminal exploitation. Sadly, a
number of young children who are criminally exploited are
sexually exploited as well. Girls are used by criminal gangs.
They are gang raped multiple times and asked to perform sexual
acts. When those girls report that to the police, they are viewed
as gang members; they are not treated as victims. Does the Home
Secretary agree that if we are to treat those girls as victims,
we need a proper statutory definition of child criminal
exploitation?
Child sexual exploitation is abhorrent, and this is part of our
response in stamping it out. Since the inquiry published its
final report, we have published our Victims and Prisoners Bill,
which places new duties on local commissioners to commission
sexual violence services according to need, including for
children. When the Bill becomes an Act, there will be new powers
and strengthened opportunities to enable police and crime
commissioners to respond to particular needs in their areas, such
as the issues that the hon. Member raises.
(Rother Valley)
(Con)
I thank the Home Secretary for making the statement to the House
and for visiting Rother Valley to meet me and victims of child
sexual exploitation only last month. As well as helping survivors
of child rape and families such as those who were affected in
Rotherham and Rother Valley, we must work to ensure that those
who failed in their duties of care may no longer hold positions
of authority. Does she agree with the points that I set out in my
recent ten-minute rule Bill—the Public Office (Child Sexual
Abuse) Bill—which would ensure that nobody who enabled,
facilitated or ignored child sexual abuse had any position of
authority?
I thank my hon. Friend for his very important campaigning on this
issue and for his advocacy for victims. I found it incredibly
powerful to visit him in his constituency and to meet campaigners
and other victims and survivors of child sexual abuse.
We are introducing the duty to report; that is one of the key
recommendations and one of the key measures that we are taking
forward. We want to get this right. We need to ensure that those
in positions of authority—whether they are in local authorities
or are social workers, teachers or police officers—undertake
their roles and responsibilities and discharge their duties, and
ensure that the right balance is struck in protecting children.
Professor Jay makes it clear that a duty can bring about a
culture change. That is what I want to see.
(Twickenham) (LD)
I join the Home Secretary and shadow Home Secretary in paying
tribute to the brave victims who have come forward as part of
this inquiry. Young people in care are some of the most
vulnerable members of our society, targeted by abusers because
they do not have the support networks that other young people
grow up with. Although thousands of foster carers, children’s
home staff and others do an amazing job of providing a stable,
loving environment, the report highlighted the shocking abuse
that many children in local authority care experience. Will the
Government accept the inquiry’s recommendation to amend the
Children Act 1989, so that the courts can intervene when local
councils are not exercising their parental responsibilities
properly?
I think the amendment to the Children Act to give parity of legal
protection to children in care is the recommendation to which the
hon. Member refers, and we accept in spirit the need for parity.
We are exploring ways in which we can best empower children in
care to challenge what is going wrong in their care through the
independent review of children’s social care and national panel
reviews. Importantly, we have the national safeguarding review
panel, which takes action and looks in depth into serious
incidents. That can discharge a lot of the functions that have
been called for in this inquiry.
(Thurrock) (Con)
I welcome much of what my right hon. and learned Friend has said
this afternoon, but she is right when she observes that this is a
question of cultural behaviour. The truth is that state
institutions have failed these victims for decades, based on
institutional bias against their social background as much as
anything else. We know that perpetrators are very clever in
seeking out their victims, and in seeking out those who will be
believed least. As she pointed out, this requires a whole of
Government response to challenge the behaviour of state
institutions so that they are more vigilant and take these things
seriously.
To probe my right hon. and learned Friend a bit further, how will
she achieve a change in behaviour across the criminal justice
system? It is only a matter of weeks since she responded to the
Casey review, which again showed some of these behaviours. Also,
on lifetime therapeutic support for victims, it is now six years
since NHS England committed to a lifetime care pathway, yet local
commissioners are still not commissioning the necessary services.
What can she say this afternoon about ensuring that the
Government really do deliver on this and that this does not just
sit on the shelf?
I am very cognisant of that risk, and the one thing I want is to
be held to account for my words today. I want another update to
this House on progress—on delivery of our response—in due
course.
In terms of how to bring about a culture change, the report is
very clear. I believe that mandatory reporting—a duty, a legal
obligation—will direct and force professionals’ minds into a
particular way of thinking. That will be accompanied by training,
and it must be accompanied by peer support. That is how we will
bring about a culture change so that we avoid and eliminate
turning a blind eye to apparent problems that are of a heinous
nature.
On the support available and what the Government have done
already, there have been significant increases in Government
funding for victims of sexual violence, including child sexual
abuse. The Home Office’s support for victims and survivors of
child sexual abuse has got funding of over £4.5 million, and we
have distributed that to charities that provide vital support.
The NHS long-term plan commits an additional £2.3 billion for the
expansion and transformation of mental health services. We now
need to ensure that that gets down to the grassroots level and
reaches the victims and survivors, but a lot of work has already
gone on within Government.
(Eltham) (Lab)
It is estimated that just one in five child victims report to the
police, but in my experience in local government, young people
who were disclosing that they were being abused needed an
independent advocate and an independent voice to go to, so that
they would be listened to and treated with sympathy. It is not
necessarily reporting to the police that is required, so what can
the Home Secretary say about what she is doing to open up those
avenues, so that people can report with confidence that they will
be listened to?
The issue that the hon. Gentleman raises is precisely the reason
why I am a passionate supporter of independent sexual violence
advisers, as well as independent domestic violence advisers: they
are also relevant for children who are victims of sexual
violence. We have already increased the number of ISVAs available
to victims of sexual violence, including children, so that when
someone makes a complaint and enters the criminal justice system,
they will have an independent professional who is on their side
to help them navigate a very traumatic and daunting process, who
can provide clarity and the vital support that can make the
difference between a successful prosecution and an unsuccessful
one.
(Newbury) (Con)
I have previously declared an interest, because I was counsel to
the inquiry from 2016 to 2017.
Given that the inquiry looked at cases that were often decades
old, there is a risk that we see its conclusions as belonging to
the past, rather than the present. One of the recommendations of
the inquiry is creating a protective environment for children,
and although that will have meant something different in some of
the contexts that we looked at, we know now from the Children’s
Commissioner that one of the biggest drivers of child sexual
exploitation is the ubiquity of violent online porn, particularly
when the perpetrator is also a child.
Can I therefore ask the Home Secretary what reassurances she can
give that the Online Safety Bill really will protect children
from viewing this kind of content? Rather more boldly, could I
ask her whether she would consider working with her counterparts
at the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport to
regulate the content of some of the big porn providers such as
Pornhub, which we know through a body of evidence hosts and
promotes child sexual exploitation in some of its online
content?
My hon. Friend speaks with expertise, and she raises a very
important point with which I agree: the ubiquity, as she puts it,
of online pornography and its accessibility by children is a
major factor in the incidence of criminal behaviour of this type.
The Online Safety Bill will mark a game changer in the protection
of children online, and will take us forward in preventing
children from accessing this heinous material. Through the Bill,
companies will need to take a robust approach to protect children
from illegal content and criminal behaviour on their services.
They will also need to assess whether their service is likely to
be accessed by children and, if so, deliver safety measures for
them. Those safety measures will need to protect children, and
there will be measures relating to age verification. In my mind,
that represents a robust step change in how we protect children
online.
(Newport West) (Lab)
As co-chair of the all-party parliamentary group on safeguarding
in faith communities, may I thank the Safeguarding Minister, the
hon. Member for Derbyshire Dales (Miss Dines), for her letter to
our group written on 12 May? We appreciate that there are many
recommendation in the inquiry’s final report, and they need
careful consideration, but given the years of historical abuse
and the years of inquiry, may I urge the Home Secretary to do all
that she can to ensure that these wrongs are righted and that we
see action, not more consultation, for the victims and survivors,
and as quickly as possible?
I want to move as quickly as possible as well, and I want to get
it right. For example, with the redress scheme, we have the very
helpful starting point of Professor Jay’s recommendation. We have
now accepted that recommendation. There are various models around
the world of how a redress scheme can operate, such as those in
Australia and Scotland and more localised examples. We need to
ensure that the right criteria are established, that the process
is robust and fair, and that ultimately the victims and survivors
get the redress, the justice and the closure that they seek.
(Keighley) (Con)
I welcome today’s statement, and I put on record my thanks to all
those who helped influence the report, particularly the victims
of child sexual exploitation. I also thank my right hon. Friend
the Member for Maidenhead (Mrs May) for instigating the
report.
Unfortunately, child sexual exploitation haunts my community in
Keighley, and I have held many a roundtable with victims and
their families who have had to go through incredibly traumatic
experiences. I thank my right hon. Friend the Member for Witham
() for coming up when she was
Home Secretary to listen to some of those terrible stories. One
of the things that definitely came across was a lack of trust and
the disappearance of trust in the very organisations that should
be there to protect the most vulnerable in society, whether that
is the police, our local authorities or healthcare systems. That
was further illustrated by a report by the Bradford safeguarding
partnership in July 2021, which looked at only five children
across the Bradford district who had experienced child sexual
exploitation. That is why I want to see a full Rotherham-style
inquiry into child sexual exploitation across the Bradford
district, so that we can get to grips with some of the
complexities at a local level.
Will the Home Secretary give a commitment to work with all
Departments on this issue? We need a whole of Government approach
involving not only the Department for Education but the
Department of Health and Social Care and the Department for
Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, because it is only when we
all work with those Departments, and at a local level with local
authorities and devolved mayoralties, that we can get to grips
with and tackle this issue once and for all.
My hon. Friend speaks powerfully, and I pay tribute to him for
all his campaigning on behalf of his constituents on this very
serious issue. The reports relating to Rochdale, Telford and
Rotherham are all very powerful in their conclusions, and they
speak to a similar situation to that to which he refers. The
mandatory duty seeks to address professionals not taking action
by placing a legal obligation on professionals to identify signs
and indicators of child sexual abuse, and by providing them with
the right training so that they have the know-how to deal with
these delicate but devastating matters. It will be a game
changer. Professionals on the frontline will have at the
forefront of their professional training what child sexual abuse
looks like, how to identify it and what action to take to stop
it.
(Chesterfield) (Lab)
The recent appalling court case on the murder of Finley Boden,
which led to the conviction of his parents for murder, exposed
serious questions about the social work practised at Derbyshire
social services and indeed the actions taken by the court. For
that reason, the recommendation for the creation of a new child
protection authority was very much welcomed. Can the Home
Secretary tell us what specific proposed functions of the child
protection agency she believes will be better delivered by the
Department for Education’s implementation strategy? Why does she
believe that approach is better than the creation of a child
protection authority, as recommended in this report?
May I put on record my sympathies to the family of the hon.
Gentleman’s constituents? When it comes to the child protection
authority, we absolutely agree that we need a sharper focus on
improving practice in child protection and ensuring that we are
all playing our part to keep children safe. Since the inquiry
reported, the Department for Education, in responding to the care
review, has set out a bold vision for reform of social care and
child protections—“Stable Homes, Built on Love”—and the
Government are confident that those reforms will deliver the
intention behind the inquiry’s recommendation for a new child
protection authority.
(Dulwich and West Norwood)
(Lab)
Can I put on record my tribute to my constituents who gave
evidence to IICSA? They relived their trauma so that changes can
be made in future and they are among the most courageous people I
know.
One of the recommendations from IICSA’s final report is for the
introduction of arrangements for the registration of staff
working in care roles in children’s homes, including secure
children’s homes. This is an obvious practical recommendation
that would make a material difference to the safety of children
living in local authority care, but it was originally recommended
in 2018 and there was really no excuse for the Government not to
act at that time to implement it. Since that time, children have
continued to suffer abuse and neglect in children’s homes,
including those run by the Hesley Group in Doncaster and the
Calcot homes in Oxfordshire. Can I ask the Home Secretary why she
waited five years to act and can she update the House on the
timescale for implementing this very important
recommendation?
We accept the meaning and significance of recommendation 7, to
which the hon. Member refers, on the registration of staff
working in care roles in children’s homes. We are exploring the
proposals to introduce professional registration of the
residential childcare workforce as part of the “Stable Homes,
Built on Love” strategy—key and landmark reforms to our care
system. But we recognise the important contribution of the
residential childcare workforce in caring for some of the most
vulnerable children in our society, and the importance of
ensuring that they have the skills required to safeguard, support
and care for those children. We are backing them with investment
and reform.
Madam Deputy Speaker ( )
I thank the Home Secretary for her statement.
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